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The management at Credit Suisse faces a "make or break" year in 2013, according to JP Morgan's top European banks analysts, having committed to a Sfr2bn ($2.1bn) cost-cutting plan.

Kian Abouhossein and Amit Ranjan at JP Morgan spoke recently with David Mathers, chief financial office at Credit Suisse, and published a follow-up note on the meeting this week.

Credit Susse announced in its third-quarter results in October that it had achieved cost savings of Sfr2bn during the first nine months of 2012 and the bank is targeting an additional Sfr2bn by the end of 2015.

More recently, the bank revealed it would be combining is asset management and private banking operations and moving its Swiss sales and trading unit into a new wealth management division. JP Morgan's analysts believe this move could bring an additional Sfr500m in cost savings.

Abouhossein and Ranjan said that Credit Suisse was on track to meet its targets but added that the bank could go further, particularly in its fixed income, currencies and commodities business: “We believe FICC will have to be refocused in certain segments such as FX, commodities and rates.

"In our view, macro (FX and rates) and commodities lack revenue scale, generating Sfr1.8bn and Sfr0.25bn in revenues currently and we assume no revenue growth or market share gains for Credit Suisse in commodities and macro.”

While the FICC business lacks scale, Credit Suisse's investment bank is overstaffed and offers potential for cost and capital restructuring, the analysts said. They anticipate further details in February when Credit Suisse announces its full-year earnings but said that management needed to “right-size” both back and front-office jobs.

“Restructuring underperforming macro, commodities and certain parts of credit could lead to material capital release and lead IB to more acceptable returns on Basel III capital in our view", they said.